A church that is socially, culturally and racially diverse.
A church that has a profound influence upon the city.
A church of 1000 active ministers of reconciliation.
A church that touches heaven and impacts earth.
A church where Jesus gets the credit, because Jesus provides the power.
A church of people not seeking recognition but instead a revolution.
A church that feeds the hungry and clothes the naked.
A church that makes welfare obsolete in it's jurisdiction.
A church that places a high value upon the widow and the fatherless.
A church doers of the Word and not just hearers only.
A church of holiness and not hype.
A church of joy and not judgement.
A church of faith and not fear.
A church of triumph, not tradition.
A church of praise and not pretense.
A church prospering and not impoverished.
A church that equips.
A church that empowers.
A church that looks beyond the four walls of a building and instead upon
the walls of men's hearts.
A church ready for the return of Jesus Christ our King.
These are some of the characteristics of the church that I feel that God
is desiring to establish in our city.
A week ago Wednesday, I began a series of messages relating to five
questions that must be asked before the end of the year 2000.
1. Do I have the right attitude towards money?
2. Do I have the utterance to make boldly known the mystery of the Gospel.
The third question in this series of messages is birthed out of something
that I believe the Holy Spirit dropped in my heart (7) years ago and has
continued to bring revelation and refinement in relationship to this
question.
The third question that needs to be asked before the end of the year 2000
is this:
Are we networking?
When Mother Teresa, of Calcutta, was still alive she told the story of a
time when a knock came at her door in the wee hours of the mourning. A man
told her of a family of eight who had not eaten a meal in days. She
quickly rose and filled a sack with rice and went to the house. She said
that when she entered, the faces of the children told the story. They were
not faces of sorrow or anger- but their deep set eyes and swollen stomachs
communicated the ache of hunger. She handed the mother the rice and
instead of immediately preparing a meal for her family, she instead
carefully divided it into two equal portions and walked out the door with
one of the portions. When she arrived back, Mother Teresa asked her where
she had gone. Her response was, my neighbors are hungry also.
In a day and age where the term "networking" is thrown about as a way to
obtain business "contacts" or a means in which to advance ones own
position or ideology; the term has been stolen from the church and has
become lost to it's purest definition.
net-work (netwurk) n. [[NET1 + WORK]] 1 any arrangement or fabric of
parallel wires, threads, etc. crossed at regular intervals by others
fastened to them.2 a group, system, etc. of interconnected or cooperating
individuals
How many of you are connected to the internet. One of the primary useages
of the internet was for the distribution of information between colleges
and universities. It was utilized as a way to link together think tanks in
order to allow knowledge to better better employed. This www effectively
laid the parallel lines that would be fastened together at intervals
called universities.
Now you can sit in your own home and summon literally billions of files of
information of millions of subjects because a network was established.
I can simultaneously talk with my sister in Arizona, and friends in
Calfiornia, North Carolina, Ohio and abroad all on this network.
Eph 2:19-22 "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building,
being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you
also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
(NKJ)
God has established a network of parralel lines within the body of Christ
that serve to unite His church unto a common cause of reaching a world for
the Gospel and becoming the Bride (singular) of Christ. He has one Bride
Gal 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
(KJV)
Question: How many of you are like me and think that Dayspring is a pretty
awesome church?
Did you realize that Dayspring is the product of God's connecting of
parallel lines?
Seven years ago, I was pastoring Gospel Light Fellowship church in this
building. God had began to place things in my heart and define the vision
that would serve to direct my life towrds His will.
One day, I met a man that immediately caught my attention. What
specifically it was, I cannot tell you, except for the fact that it was a
divine appointment. I called this man up and asked if we could sit down
and visit for a few minutes one day. Those few minutes turned into a few
hours and those hours have since turned into years.
That man was Pastor Leonard Derrick of Praise Cathedral Church. We began
to talk and discuss the vision that God had placed within us as
individuals and determined that God had put us on the same track and that
there was something bigger that God was desiring to do than what was
happening at Gospel Light or Praise Cathedral. We recognized that the
lines of God's will for us had crossed and that now we had to pray
concerning "fastening them together" in cooperation for God's purposes for
our city.
We prayed and sought the mind of Christ and this "network" has proven to
be most valuable to this work and to me personally.
(Then) six months later, another line was laid down. This time the pastor
of a church in Hereford, Texas felt a call to change from the Holy Spirit
and after seeking the face of God on the matter- came to one service at
Gospel Light Fellowship and informed me immediately after the service that
the Lord Jesus had instructed him to come and submit himself to the work
that God was doing in whatever capacity that I saw fit.
That pastor was Pastor Herman Castro, and out of the union of those three
parallel lines came what is today known as Dayspring Ministries Church.
But I am totally convinced that it would not have happened had even one of
those lines had failed in the network.
Eight months after Dayspring was formed another line was connected, that
being Pastor Ken Fowler- who had previously served at Teen Challenge. He
brought a whole new stran to the network of God's plan for our city. He
brought a practical approach to soul winning and a contageous compassion
for the lost.
But before you think that the question "Are you networking" applies only
to the pastors, think again.
Every parralel line, or every person of like vison, when they fasten
themselves together, bring a new source of provision into the whole of the
Body of Christ.
For example: we as pastors, provided a net within the newtwork that laid
new lines.
Myself:
Bradley & Niki Perez
Ralph & Linda Savala
Pastor Leonard:
Thomas & Doree Derrick
Sandy McGowan
Pastor Herman:
Nick & Cindy Castro (who in turn brought)
Alex Hill
Cesar Sanchez
Pastor Ken:
Cody Pulley
Then other lines were laid:
Sue Sanders (Holly Hill)
Roger Peters (Dewayne & Lori, Linda Carter, Mrs Peters)
Pastor Bo & Debbie
Heather Crespin (Jeff & Michelle Day, Tina Harrington)
Shane Patterson (Juanita, Paul & Shy, Rosemary)
This is networking, when God's people of like vision say, "It is bigger
than me individually and biggerthan I think", so let's get inerconnected
and in cooperation!
